Unselfish Mavericks beat New Orleans with a blueprint effort

That’s even more than Rick Carlisle planned on using. He’d said before the game that he was planning on going 10-deep.

With Jason Kidd on the sideline because of back problems, the concept of sharing the ball was going to have to be paramount for everybody who stepped on the court. To that end, the Mavericks became the ultimate equal-opportunity society in the first half.

Not a single one of them had more than six points after 24 minutes, and yet they were ahead by 11 points and well on their way to a 96-81 victory over the Hornets at American Airlines Center.

“This, kind of, is the defining characteristic of this season,” Carlisle said. “Depth is king. Energy trumps most everything. And so, we got to find it, keep it on the floor. When it’s not there, we have to shuffle the deck. That’s just the way it’s gotta be.”

Without their primary ballhandler in Kidd, the Mavericks used an effective array of post-ups by Vince Carter, pick-and-rolls featuring Ian Mahinmi and Brendan Haywood as sturdy screen-setters and wonderful ball movement as a team.

They even played a little defense, holding the Hornets to 17-of-45 shooting (37.8 percent) over the last three quarters.

But it was the sharing that made them so tough on this night.

“We’re a very unselfish team,” said Carter, who had 13 points. “We move the ball, share and there are a lot of shooters. It’s not about how many points you score. It’s about execution.

“We have to outsmart some teams. There’s going to be some younger teams that are maybe more athletic, faster than us. But we have to pride ourselves on execution. And us moving the ball and finally getting stops makes us successful.”

The Mavericks’ effort pushed their record to 4-5. It was a nice comeback from the 22-point loss they suffered Thursday night in San Antonio. If the Mavericks have shown anything so far it’s that they are susceptible to looking really bad in one game and coming back with a much better showing in the next.

“That’s the thing I think people have to start to realize and we do already,” owner Mark Cuban said before the game. “You can’t take any one game or two games in some cases as a reflection of anything. It’s going to come down to, do you make the playoffs and can you figure out a way to get into the playoffs rested.”

That’s so far down the road it’s hard to even think about. But the Mavericks managed to take a small step in the right direction by beating a New Orleans team that clearly is in the midst of a difficult transition. The Hornets traded Chris Paul before the season began and the best player they got in the deal from the Los Angeles Clippers, guard Eric Gordon, has played just one of the last six games because of a knee problem.

The Mavericks simply did what they needed to do. After going up 52-41 at halftime, they started the third quarter by missing nine of their first 10 shots – and increased their lead to 64-50.

Carter was having a nice evening in place of Kidd. He had the highlight-reel play of the night when he made a baseline drive to the rim and elevated over a couple of Hornets for a wicked throw-down. The dunk with 2:57 left in the first half put the Mavericks up by 14, their biggest lead at the time.

“That was half-man, half-amazing right there,” said Brendan Haywood. “If he gets that step on you, he can still get to the rim.”